Bourbon Buying Guide

By The Editors
September 19, 2014 9:00 am

Rejoice citizens, it’s Friday.

And on Friday, we drink. And there’s nothing this town loves to drink more than a beer and a shot of whiskey.

With that in mind — and in honor of National Bourbon Heritage Month — we present the InsideHook Bourbon Buyer’s Guide.

Pull up a stool.

Inside: recommendations at varied price points and styles (from spicy high rye to smooth wheated) and why they should be in your liquor cabinet, stat.

Here to help: our friend Phil Olson. Bourbon fanatic. Podcast host. Successful beard grower.

He’s also the bar manager at the finest whiskey establishment in the Midwest: Longman & Eagle in Logan Square, which stocks more than 300 varieties of brown behind the bar (70% of which are bourbon).

Also one of the many reasons why Chicago is a really swell place to drink.

Before you dive in, a note on price v. quality.

“In the bourbon world,” Olson tells us, “price is an indicator of scarcity, not quality.”

Drop that knowledge on the fellas over your next boilermaker.

Enjoy the guide.

Photos: Sandy Noto

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